Sunny 9 for 2006 November 26

This Thanksgiving holiday was very fun and enjoyable. On Wed we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the Walch/Taylor side. Michelle came in town and Leah and Derrick were there along with James Walker and his very fun wife Debbie. Aaron didn't make it because he was still recovering from food poisoning the day before. He was very ill, but luckily felt good enough to go to the Turkey Bowl and play football for 3 or 4 hours on Thanksgiving Day. I would say he is fully recovered now.

On Thanksgiving Day I woke up and started on my food assignments right away so they would be done before I was too wiped out to do any of it. Aaron's cousin Tyler and his girlfriend Andrea drove down from Houston and we had a party with them, us, and Josh, Jenni, Caden, and Austin. We opted not to go to Mo Ranch with Mom and the Taylor family because Aaron really wanted a traditional day instead of the buffet there at the ranch. He is spoiled like that, and when we found out that Tyler was going to make the trip we figure it would work out for us to just stay here.

I made sweet potato soufflé, corn casserole, one pumpkin pie, pistachio Jello salad, green bean casserole, and bought the turkey for Josh to fry which turned out awesome and very moist. Jenni made rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing (which I love), and a red Jello salad which is awesome too, and she made a berry pie and lemon cream pie which were both to die for. Jenni is quite good at baking. Tyler and Andrea brought a sort of Waldorf salad and ham. Between all of our food assignments we had TONS of leftovers which I have been eating all weekend long.

We had one glitch on Thanksgiving which was the turkey but it was easily remedied. I bought a 20 lb turkey and had defrosted it the day before, but when Josh called his dad for instructions on frying the turkey we found out that they can't be more than 14 lbs or they will explode from water content or something like that so Aaron had to run to the store and see if they had a small turkey that was already defrosted. Luckily, there was and the fried turkey turned out great. I really like it that way and it took like 40 minutes to cook as opposed to an 5 hours. I don't think it is that much more fattening if at all because you are pretty much left with the peanut oil you put in there. So today I am cooking the turkey I first bought because I don't want to refreeze it, I wouldn't have room in my freezer for a huge ol' turkey anyway, and plus with baby Gunnar coming I will have dinners frozen ready to be prepared relatively quickly with turkey leftovers, and I love Hawaiian haystacks and Shepard’s pie so it is good overall. And who can pass up a turkey, mayo, and cranberry sauce sandwich. Yum!

The day after Thanksgiving Jenni, Andrea, and I all got up at 4:30 AM to hit the shops for the good deals. Wal-Mart wasn't too bad, but the Best Buy was horrid. I thought Wal-Mart would be packed and it was but the line went by quickly. It was also 5 AM when we got there and 7 AM when we got to Best Buy. At 5 AM only the completely insane were out and about, but at 7 the semi insane and completely insane were out shopping. I got a good deal on an exersaucer/walker/activity station and a small TV and some DVDs, but I was pretty proud of myself for not buying too much. We finished shopping around 10 and I was ready for a nap. I only got 4 hours of sleep that night so I napped for a good 3 hours.

We went to see Deja Vu I think that night with Michelle, Mom, Aaron, and Joe and Louise. It was good. Yesterday was pretty low key, and today maybe we can get the house back in order from the busy week. When Michelle got here she cleaned my house for me as a present from David. As a mom your work is never done because it already needs to be mopped and cleaned up again. Agh, I will never be ready for this baby.